NHAI comes up with a proposal to decongest NCR; seeks views

NEW DELHI: NHAI has come up with a proposal in for decongesting the National Capital Region traffic by constructing link roads, flyovers and underpasses.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has also created a separate cell to work on decongesting Delhi and the NCR, which comprises 13 districts of Haryana, UP's 7 and 2 of Rajasthan as well as boats of over 88.50 lakh vehicles.

It has uploaded the proposal for decongesting the NCR on its website and urged architects, town-planners and other citizens to send in their suggestions and comments by April 30.

"NHAI has prepared a decongestion proposal for Delhi. It recognises the urgency of decongesting Delhi and the critical need to optimise limited capital resources, while giving citizens maximum connectivity and comfort," it said in a statement.

The NCR is India's largest and world's second largest urban cluster with a population of over 54 million. It has an area of 46,208 sq km out of which NCT-Delhi has an area of around 1483 sq km and Central NCR (CNCR) has about 2000 sq km.

NHAI has proposed to provide an efficient connectivity through radial routes of outer ring road with Eastern Peripheral Express (EPE) and Western Peripheral Expressway (WPE), which will decongest Delhi.

It proposes to connect Azadpur to Sonipat, Kashmiri Gate to Baghpat, Nizamuddin Bridge to Dasna, Lajpat Nagar to Kherli Kankar in Haryana and Bhikaji Cama Place to NBRC Gate on NH-8 in Haryana among others for radial connectivity of Outer Ring Road to EPE and WPE.

It also proposed to decongest the settlement areas through elevated corridor or by rerouting the networks by a green field alignment.

In order to decongest NH-8/Gurgaon, NHAI proposes a links to connect Vasant Kunj to Aya Nagar on Gurgaon-Mehrauli road (NH-236), Sikandarpur/Guru Dronacharya Metro station to NSG Gate on NH-8, among tohers.

To decongest the Delhi-Gurgaon section of the NH-8, NHAI proposed construction of flyover and underpass at Hero Honda Chowk on Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway as well as constructing of underpasses, overpasses etc. for improvement of 3 junctions at IFFCO Chowk, Signature Chowk and Rajiv Chowk.

Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari has said Delhi's pollution has been catching all attention and government will solve it in 2 years with thrust on improving road designs, decongesting traffic and promoting eco-friendly fuel.

In November 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation of 3 National Highway projects - Eastern Peripheral Highway, Western Peripheral Highway and eight-laning of NH between Mukarba Chowk in Delhi and Panipat in Haryana.

The projects, with a combined length of 341 km will be built at an estimated cost of Rs 10,166 crore and will run through Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.